Mr Simons
CONFIDENTIAL
HKK 243/1
RECEIVED IN REAGAN NO. 51
4 JUN 1970
DESK OFFICER INDEX
PA
cc Sir A Parsons
Mr Cortazzi
Sir I Sinclair Mr Leahy
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Mr Simpson-Orlebar, PS/PUS
No
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878
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841
INDO-CHINA REFUGEES: INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
1.
Will you please take responsibility, in coordination with UND, for the reply to UKMIS New York telegram No 544 asking for further guidance on the British proposal for an international conference. It will be important to get our ideas into the mind of the UN Secretary-General as soon as possible, particularly as he indicated to UKMIS New York last night (according to what Mr Byatt said on the telephone) that he would be consulting with a number of Governments before starting the process of summoning a conference. This objective takes priority over any further explanation to
friendly missions, but the instructions had better be framed so that they can be used for this purpose also.
2. You should be guided by, and draw on, Sir A Parsons' very helpful minute to me of 30 May. I agree in particular with his paragraph 2: resettlement of the refugees and international pressure on the Vietnamese are our two main motives in calling for
a conference. Only the first of these was declared in the Prime
Minister's message to Dr Waldheim. The second calls for delicate handling at this stage because we do not want to prejudice the calling of an early (well prepared) conference. Paragraph 4 of Sir A Parsons' minute is highly relevant. On the other hand, if a
conference is called I think our Ministers will wish to air our
views on the Vietnamese, other Governments will probably feel the same, and I cannot see how the two aspects of the problem can be separated in a public forum without creating an artificial atmos- phere. Nevertheless, I do not think Ministers would be interested at this stage in separating matters to the extent of promoting two conferences, ie the second one being something on the lines of Sir A Parsons' paragraph 4.
3. You should submit a draft telegram as soon as possible for
Ministerial consideration.
1 June 1979
CONFIDENTIAL
D F Murray